Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton demands answers from Mercedes mid-race over Suzuka strategy - full transcript

Matthew Scott Sunday 13 October 2019 07:59

Lewis Hamilton was left incensed after losing more than 20 seconds to Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas over the first half of the Japanese GP.

While Bottas was able to make a superb start to take the lead off the line in Suzuka, Hamilton could not get by Sebastian Vettel and was touring in third.

With Vettel and Bottas committing to two-stop strategies, Mercedes opted to put Hamilton on a one-stop.

This was something the champion took great exception to as race engineer Pete Bonington explained the move mid-race.

PB: "So you're currently P3. Vettel 10 seconds ahead. Deg looks very high, so one stop will be a struggle. Let's chase Vettel down."

LH: "Valtteri, how far?"

PB: "Valtteri's nearly got a full pit stop."

LH: "How have I lost that much time?"

PB: "Deg is much higher, deg is much higher. And we lost time behind Vettel."

LH: "I'm out of the race now. If deg is that massive why didn't you give me hard tyres? Can you guys explain a bit please. I'm basically out of the race with a pitstop behind."

PB: "So Vettel is guaranteed a two-stop, so we can see how this comes to us."

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Hamilton demands answers from Mercedes mid-race over Suzuka strategy - full transcript

Hamilton demands answers from Mercedes mid-race over Suzuka strategy - full transcript